


Space

by bonzai_bunny



Series: Tumblr Ficlets [17]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-13 09:42:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16890165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bonzai_bunny/pseuds/bonzai_bunny
Summary: If you were to ask Canada how he felt about being a nation, he would reply,“Empty.”





	Space

**Author's Note:**

> Another little drabble, written like six years ago, on tumblr.

If you were to ask Canada how he felt about being a nation, he would reply,

  
“Empty.”  
  
That isn’t to say that he necessarily felt lonely or unaccomplished, but it was more of a literal, physical feeling. It felt like there was a giant hole in his gut that nobody could see, but he could feel the chill of the wind blow through, like a shudder. It wasn’t a good feeling by any stretch of the imagination, but he tried his best to ignore it.   
  
You see, he could feel the most where his people were on his landmass, thriving and vibrating warmly. He could feel his land too, but that was different. It was stagnant and cold compared to where his people lived; it was just empty  _space_. And he spent much of his time growing, wondering if space made everyone else feel that way. Certainly not France. France could only feel a little space and England had just looked at him like he was crazy when he had asked. The first person he realized felt it too was America.   
  
Now, it didn’t bother America as much because he had so much more people and smaller land, but it still affected him.  
  
(Canada remembered one night shortly after the Louisiana Purchase, when America had drunkenly crossed his borders. He was sobbing, clawing great lines across his stomach saying,  _“I can’t feel it, Mattie! It isn’t there!”_ )  
  
Canada hadn’t felt much pity then, and didn’t now, but every time he saw his brother shoving food into his mouth like he was about to die of starvation, he knew why and just wished America had better ways of coping.   
  
Canada had once asked China how he felt about it. The other had only smiled serenely and answered,   
  
“When you ignore it so long, it becomes second nature. And besides,” he had patted his belly affectionately, “I’m filling up now.”   
  
The only one Canada knew who could possibly feel the same or worse as him was Russia. People tended to live where it was warm (God, did Canada know that) and he knew Russia had just as an uneven population distribution that he had. Canada once timidly approached the other, just to make sure.  
  
“Cold,” Russia answered without any thought and tried to bypass the Canadian.   
  
“No, I know that! I mean…the space.”   
  
Russia looked at him briefly and intently, like he was crazy, and then broke into a loud laugh.   
  
“That is cold too, little one or had you forgotten!” Canada waited patiently for the other to finish laughing, and watched as Russia wiped a tear merrily from his eye.   
  
“That is all I can really say. I haven’t felt warm there in centuries. A millennia, probably. Tell me, have you ever been shot in the stomach, repeatedly, on a freezing morning?”   
  
Canada shook his head and softly answered, “No.”   
  
“Well that is what it feels like. But worse.”  
  
Canada didn’t ask the other anymore after that, but he figured that he’d take his space and just be thankful it wasn’t larger. 


End file.
